'The memories remain in my soul'

Be’eri begins demolishing homes destroyed on October 7, choosing life over ruins

Gaza-border kibbutz, which lost more than 100 residents, tears down two shattered neighborhoods, starting with house belonging to Gat family, to move on from trauma

Demolitions started on Sunday in the Olive neighborhood of Kibbutz Be’eri near the Gaza border, one of two neighborhoods worst affected by the Hamas invasion of October 7, 2023.

Be’eri was one of the hardest-hit communities during the attack. Of the over 1,200 people killed when Hamas terrorists invaded southern Israel, 102 were residents of Be’eri — around a 10th of the community. Thirty more people were kidnapped from the kibbutz and taken to Gaza (all of whom have since been returned, whether alive or dead).

Residents long debated what to do with the houses. Ultimately, kibbutz members felt that demolishing and rebuilding the two neighborhoods — leaving just one house standing as a stark testament to the horrors of October 7 — rather than living in a perpetual monument to the devastating attack, was crucial in allowing them to move on.

In January, the kibbutz selected the house that would remain, a month after residents voted to demolish all but one of the homes destroyed during the Hamas onslaught.

The burned-out house belongs to Yogev and Yael Dvori, who were in Cyprus with their four children at the time of the attack. The fact that the family survived was one factor in the decision to choose their home, as was its location in the Kerem (vineyard) neighborhood on the edge of the kibbutz: residents will not need to see it every day.

The first house to be bulldozed on Sunday was the Gat family’s home. Kinneret Gat was murdered next to the house, and her daughter, Carmel Gat, was abducted to Gaza and later murdered, after 11 months in captivity.

Eshel Gat, husband of the late Kinneret and father of Carmel, spoke of the painful process of letting go of a home filled with memories, while insisting that his loss cannot be defined by a physical place.

“Today, I witnessed the demolition of my home, the evacuation of an entire life that was cut short by violence. The memories remain in my soul; I hold on to them every day, but the house is not a symbol or a memorial site,” he said.

“We will remember and commemorate Carmel and Kinneret in ways that symbolize life and not hell,” the Gat family said in a statement.

The family also announced a race set for May 15 to commemorate the two women’s lives of “action and love of the country.”

The event will include three relay races, to be run or walked, from Kibbutz Yagur in the Carmel, near Haifa, to Tzemach at the southern end of the Sea of Galilee.